first edition of Somerville's first book, an English version of Laplace's 1798-1827 Mécanique Céleste, limited to 750 copies. "Mary Somerville was the first woman scientist to win an international reputation entirely in her own right rather than by working in association with a father, husband, or brother. Self-educated in mathematics and astronomy, she wrote many textbooks dealing with celestial mechanics, geography, and the sciences in general"--BEA, page 1072. DSB XII, 521-25. superb association copy, inscribed and signed: 'To Francis Chantrey Esquire from his friend Mary Somerville.' Chantrey was a prominent portrait sculptor who executed a marble bust of Somerville commissioned by the Royal Society of London, which did not then admit women as Fellows.